Thundersdawn PT3: RSS Dauntless
by Chaos Eternus
Summary: 3rd part of the Thundersdawn series. The RSS builds its first warship.
1. Training

**Lets all say it together now: I do not own, nor claim ownership of StarGate SG-1, Chocky's Challenge, or Down Periscope.**

**I strongly recommend you read Dawn Of Thunder then Thunder Rising first, otherwise this will not make much sense.**

**To all those who reviewed the previous two parts, thanks, its nice to know the series is being read and appreciated.**

**No real action for a while yet.**

**Also official archive has been set up at:**

**Thanks to JPMWycombe who has joined up as beta, and is now very active in creating the concepts in use in this series.**

**Chapter 1: Training**

"New contact! 3 O'clock and closing fast!"

"Shields buckling, aft quarter!"

"They're trying to stay above us! They're getting above the firing arcs of our main weapons!"

"Helm! Roll us 90 degrees to the vertical!"

"Sir?!"

"Roll us 90 degrees to the vertical, ensign!"

"Can't do it sir!"

Captain Dafydd slapped a button on his console, instantly all the readouts and displays froze.

"Why not? Ensign"

"Well, we… ah…."

"This is not an ocean-going cruiser like your last assignment, ensign, this is a spaceship! We can't take on water in the vastness of space, nor will we sink beneath the waves if we try going down! There is nothing to stop us moving in any direction we want!"

"Except the Planet beneath us sir!" 

Dafydd held his head in his hands and tried hard not to laugh or cry. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to assign him his son as an assistant obviously had it in for him.

"Correct of course, Cadet Dafydd, but not exactly the point I was trying to make"

He looked around at the faces of his crew, all of whom were trying hard not to laugh once again and decided that a tactical withdrawal might be in order.

"That's enough for today, back here 0900 tomorrow, thank you"

Captain Dafydd left as quickly as decorum allowed, and went swiftly to Thundersdawn's command centre. As he entered command he noticed the main screen blank out, momentarily displaying the simulator he had just left, he glanced around the command centre at all the crew, each and everyone was trying extremely hard not to laugh. Captain Dafydd had a momentary thought that just maybe, if he was very lucky there faces would freeze that way. No such luck, unfortunately.

"Brilliant grasp of tactics there captain!"

"You mean rolling the ship like that? Well, I…"

"No, I mean your use of a very famous military manoeuvre"

"I didn't notice that, which one?"

"The Hare, Captain"

Muffled chuckles filled the bridge as the crew tried hard not to burst into outright laughter.

"Thank you, Captain Dodge" Dafydd replied, plying the irony on thick "You know you should have been a comedian, with a tattoo like that it would have been easy to get everyone laughing at you"

The crews ears pricked up, _tattoo?_ This sounded interesting.

"Of course you did have to brush a Russian sub, and get blind drunk before you got it, but…"

"Alright, point taken"

"Where's Peters?"

"Hoped over to RSS Coalmine for a board of inquiry, left me in charge, so how do you think its going?"

"Well, they're getting there slowly; they know all the procedures off by heart it's just trying to get them to think in three dimensions that's the problem, Helmsman Wallace in particular"

"You'll get there, you do have another month before Dauntless is completed, doing a good job by the way"

"Thanks" 


	2. Visitors

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Chapter 2: Visitors

Thompson quickly led them past the reinforced squads of guards protecting the rebuilt dry-dock 4, and onto the viewing area. They gazed over the form beneath them, being carefully and fastidiously put together by the skilful hands of the dockyard crews. Dauntless, the first of a new class of Warships to be built by Tau'ri hands, she lay there tall and proud, her streamlined hull screaming speed and power, from the sharp pointed prow, tapering back to the rectangular main hull, almost perfect, marred by only a few antennae, the weapons themselves recessed until needed, to the tightly packed cylinders of the engine room and the sharp downward rudder of the decoy launcher.

Her hull was complete now, and with only two weeks to go until the official launch, a constant stream of stores could be seen moving through the clear plastic of the access walkways, as well as the occasional baggage laden crewmember, moving into his new home at last.

"She's an impressive looking ship, Admiral." Hammond said.

"That she is, HMS Dauntless, Dauntless class Light Cruiser, She will outpace, out accelerate and outmanoeuvre the Prometheus Class." Thompson said, justifiably proud of the RSS's latest achievement.

"Dauntless is indeed a fine achievement."

"Yeah, but in a straight up fight, we would still kick your asses."

Snorts filled the room, most notably coming from Captain Harris of the Prometheus class Iwo Jima.

"You don't know anything about ship to ship engagements, do you O'Neill?"

Thompson interrupted before O'Neill could reply, "What he means is that while the Prometheus class is better armed, they have to be able to hit the Dauntless, and hitting a fast moving highly manoeuvrable target is not the easiest of tasks, you yourself have experienced that yourself I believe, when you have tried to use guns on an enemy fighter?"

"Oh, yeah, not fun."

"Plus Dauntless mounts a decoy launcher, underneath the hull, an innovation we will be testing before proposing is added to the Prometheus class designs, let's go aboard now people."

The group moved swiftly through the corridors to the Dauntless' access tube, and onto Dauntless.

"As you can see" Thompson spoke, pointing things out as they went, "Dauntless is not quite finished yet, while all the systems are onboard and for the most part connected, a lot of systems still need to be calibrated, these include the weapons arrays, shields, sensors and the like. At this point in time, Dauntless could launch if needed, but would be combat ineffective."

"You have a most impressive vessel here, Admiral Thompson, however I have a question."

"Go ahead."

"Your missile bays do not appear to be complete, nor do launchers appear to be under construction, why is that?"

"At this point in time we still do not have reliable access to Naquada. The Asteroid is, surprise surprise, in a high density region of the belt, no doubt the asteroids were attracted by the high density and sheer mass of the naquada, this makes it exceedingly difficult to mine safely, as yet we are working on ways around this but it means that our naquada supply is limited to chunks broken off the main mass which we have grabbed and moved to RSS Coalmine. A permanent mining station for the asteroid is being designed, but construction will be resource intensive, this thing will need serious shielding. This means the design of the missiles and launch systems has been delayed, now if you will follow me, the Bridge is this way…."


	3. Launch

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Chapter 3: Launch

To those in dry-dock ones viewing area, seeing Dauntless begin to leave through the great clamshell doors was a solemn and moving occasion. To some, it was the final result of years of work since Chocky had revealed herself to Thompson, striving towards this day. To others, it was watching a beautiful new ship being born at last. To many, it was one more vessel ready to hold the line for humanity.

Thompson spoke softly, and solemnly, "May luck and hope follow you, Dauntless"

"Let Honour and integrity be your watchwords" Peters added.

"May you always stand as a shield against the night" O'Neill added, the rest of SG-1 looking at him in shock.

"Amen" Hammond said, a word that was quickly repeated by all present.

"Amen"

The space around Thundersdawn was unusually clear, occupied only by the USS Iwo Jima, with a CAP of Lancer fighters orbiting almost out of visual range, for today at least the pattern had been cleared, no craft on approach, no craft leaving the massive, but scarred station. Dauntless was launching, and Captain Peters was taking no chances. 

Captain Harris watched as the great clamshell doors of the massive dry-dock slowly began to open, releasing the faintest wisp of air loose into the vacuum of space. 

"Heads up people, she's coming out" Captain Harris warned his bridge crew.

Slowly, almost hesitantly the RSS Dauntless left the dry-dock where she had been built, grown really from plans laid down a year before, almost being born, not into the arms of a waiting mid-wife, but into the cold, unfeeling vastness of space, her natural element. 

Harris watched as small jets of flame danced for a moment from Dauntless's outsized thrusters, pushing her with a firmer hand into the vastness of space. Dauntless crawled away from Thundersdawn, away from the beating breast of her creator, moving to a safe distance.

"Iwo Jima, this is Dauntless. Cleared Thundersdawn with no problem, going engines Hot! Ready to play chase?"

Harris looked to his bridge crew, and nodded, satisfied by what he saw.

"Dauntless, your chase plane is ready and smokin' the tyres"

Captain Dafydd laughed, "Roger that, Iwo"

"Sir, detecting energy emissions consistent with Naquada generator startup from Dauntless, and… Geez! Hot Start! They are generator HOT sir!"

"Already? I thought only the man-portable generators went hot _that_ fast"

"Dauntless, this is Iwo, we are reading you as generator hot"

"We confirm that, Iwo, no problems so far"

"Roger that"

Harris moved over to the sensor plot, gazing at the energy patterns radiating from Dauntless. Right now Dauntless was radiating energy, almost bleeding it as every generator, main and backup was brought fully online, but without any major systems powered up to use the energy.

"Iwo, this is Dauntless, all generators hot, power grid stable, energy dissipaters… heating up, but still nominal, you copy?"

"Not reading anything unusual here, Dauntless, I'd say you were clear for the full program"

"Concur"

"Reading STL drive start-up and… Geez! Hot start again sir!"

Harris groaned suddenly, "Sons of a bitch!"

"Sir?" Ensign Kilbourne, the sensor analyst asked, confused.

"They're using _our_ next-generation systems, created using the lessons learnt from our current systems. They will go Hyper-Hot PDQ too. All these are things the SGC techs said they could build into the next-generation craft, now they knew how to get it working"

"Son of a bitch!" Kilbourne cursed.

"And we gave it to them, Schematics, test data, the works"

"Hook, line and sinker" he said, grimly.

Dauntless come to a jarring crash-stop a mere 10,000 yards from the outer fringes of the asteroid belt, before rolling her hull over to bring the largest asteroid within range into the firing arcs of their guass-rifles. Dauntless waited, almost expectantly, until at last the Iwo Jima came to a far gentler stop at her assigned station.

"Dauntless, this is Iwo, very funny! You know we are supposed to stay together for your systems tests, left lying in your exhaust hardly counts as 'Staying together' wouldn't you say?"

"Roger that, Iwo" Dafydd replied, amused.

"All right", Dafydd turned to his crew, "Last test now people! Tactical, bring all weapons on-line"

"Yes, Sir!" Lieutenant Tomas replied her voice cool, calm and collected, reflecting none of her inner excitement. Tomas was 4th generation Navy, and it showed, in even the worst of conditions she had been proven, in combat, to keep her head. This, and a personal interest in astrophysics was the reasoning behind her posting as Tactical officer on Dauntless. It was an honour she was determined to prove herself worthy of.

"Pulse Lasers Hot, diagnostics good, training now, good target lock. Gauss rifles hot in 3.2.1… Guass rifles Hot, diagnostics good, training now, Gauss 3 refuses to train, diagnostics indicate manual lockdown active, all others read diagnostics good, Lock good"

"Dafydd to Engineering, we have a manual lockdown on gauss 3, care to explain why?"

"No idea, sir, we're removing it now, markings indicate it's a dock-yard lock down unit captain"

"Chief Engineer Barlow, may I suggest a thorough search of the entire ship for any more _surprises_" Dafydd bit out the word, he didn't like surprises like this, in combat a one-minute delay in getting a weapon online could prove fatal.

"Yes, sir, alright you heard the man, Davies…" the channel clicked off.

"Captain, all weapons are now hot and ready, and we still have good locks"

"Very well, fire at will"

Captain Harris on the Iwo Jima watched critically as HMS Dauntless let rip with every single weapon in her arsenal, rolling over so every gun could be brought to bear. Those pulse lasers, he thought, have a minigun like rate of fire, but, noting the damage they caused on the asteroid, have little power behind them. He checked his briefing on his PDA, primarily anti-fighter and CIWS role, well they had power enough for that, and certainly fired fast enough. He moved on, checking the Gauss rifles this time. They were the same gauss rifles as Iwo Jima and all the other vessels of the Prometheus class mounted so no real surprises there. 

He snorted, Dauntless needed more Gauss rifles.

"Helm, move to bring our main weaponry to bear, weapons bring 'em online and prepare to fire"

Iwo twisted in space, moving swiftly to close above Dauntless's position, where she simultaneously fired everyone of her main weapons at one point on the asteroids surface, the asteroid cracked, and began to break apart.

"Dauntless to Iwo, have you finished showing off yet?"

Harris laughed, "I think we're done here anyway Dauntless, Good luck and Happy Hunting!"

"Roger, same to you Iwo"

The asteroid cracked and split open, spilling debris into space as Dauntless and the Iwo Jima turned and left, the Iwo onto its next mission, and Dauntless, onto its first.


	4. Dauntless Crew

Chapter 4: Dauntless Crew

Captain Dafydd looked over his assembled officers and smiled. This was the first mission briefing ever to be given aboard the Dauntless, and it showed in the eager glint in his officers eyes, the excited, tense way they held themselves. He turned around and withdrew a large brown envelope, covered in security warnings and red tape from the safe, and quickly opened it, glancing through the papers within.

"Well people, our first mission looks like being a doozy. No action just a lot of work. We are to proceed to Alpha Centauri, which has been left unexplored until now, and assess its suitability for a major RSS presence, said presence to include a major fleet depot, mining and resource gathering, quite possibly the first Tau'ri colony."

He glanced over at his officers, "Problems?"

Sub-Lieutenant Lloyd, the sensor office spoke first, "That will require a full high-resolution scan of the system, plus any likely looking planets or asteroids. Time consuming and heavy on CPU runtime." 

"The computers can handle it with no problems, though I would prefer it if engineering would drop a few degrees c in the computer rooms." Sub-lieutenant Richards, Computers and Systems Officer, drawled, his voice screaming his Scottish ancestry to all within the room.

"Do-able" Commander Tucker, Chief Engineer, said, "What I would be worried about is a snake coming up our ass, while are sensors are concentrated elsewhere."

Lloyd grimaced, "It's a problem, we would have to break off the high-res scan for intermittent 3600 sweeps, which will cost us time."

Dafydd nodded, and turned to the other officers, we had been quiet until now,

"Comms?"

"Local system, no known anomalies to cause interference, shouldn't interfere with communications, Captain." came the quiet, assured voice Warrant Officer Paterson.

"Tactical?"

"I really don't like High-res scans, Captain, if we are going to do them on a regular basis, a second set of sensors would make me feel a lot safer." Lieutenant Tomas scowled.

"Noted, agreed, and filed, Medical?"

"I'll get back to you once I can control my urge to salivate over the equipment in sickbay, sir"

"Midshipman?"

Owens looked up from his customized PDA, "Course Plotted, Captain, ready to transfer to Helm at your command."

Dafydd nodded, Owens, their Helm and Navigation Officer was as green as grass when he first joined the crew for training at Thundersdawn, but he appeared to be coming along nicely, "Okay, if no else has anything to say?"

The officers shook there heads, 

"Then let's go, Owens, transfer the course to helm."

"Aye Aye, Captain."


	5. Initial Reports

Chapter 5: Initial Reports

Command Deck, Thundersdawn.

Captain Peters sipped her tea slowly as she watched the message from Dauntless spool quickly off the printer, she could, she supposed just read of the screen, but like many people, she preferred the solid feel of paper in her hands for anything important. A sentence caught her eye, and she moved closer to the printer, reading it as it spooled off. Her eyes widened,

"Bloody Hell!" she exclaimed under her breathe.

"Comms, Signal GC I'm on my way with a priority dispatch, make sure th Rings are online to GC, and inform the admiral he might want an SGC rep there to hear this."

She waited impatiently for the report to finish printing, quietly imploring the laser to hurry up.

"Captain, GC acknowledges."

"Who's on the roster for backup OOTW?"

"I am" Captain Dodge was curious, it was not often that Captain Peters left Thundersdawn nowadays, in fact he had a hard time remembering her leaving at all, yet here she was rushing off station, during her shift as Officer Of The Watch (OOTW) even, just because of a report from what was supposed to be a relatively, tame first mission for Dauntless, "Your Comm. Officer buzzed me, what's up?"

Peters moved away from the printer, gesturing Dodge in. Curious, Dodge grabbed the printout and began reading it just as the printer finally finished. His eyes widened, 

"I have Command, Security; Peters will require an escort to GC."

Peters glared at Dodge as she grabbed the printout, and raced to the ring-room, a pair of Sergeant's in Royal Marine uniforms joining her. She stepped within the ring boundaries, the marines standing either side of her, their guns at the ready, rings could be intercepted, they weren't taking chances, not with Thundersdawn's Captain.

Second later they arrived at GC, St Athan, Peters quickly striding through the corridors and security checkpoints to Admiral Thompson's office. She knocked quickly and went in.

"Admiral," she said, noticing the presence of General Hammond in the room, "We just received the initial report from Dauntless."

"Most have been a doozy to get you off Thundersdawn." Thompson noted.

"Alpha appears to be an abandoned Goa'uld outpost, Admiral."

Thompson motioned Peters to sit down, "Are you serious?"

"According to Dauntless, markings indicate Ra owned this particular outpost. It appears to have been abandoned largely intact when he was killed."

"Exactly how intact?" Hammond asked.

"Very, sir" she paused, "according to this report, there are five trinium mines on planet, only one of which has been expensively mined, and all of the mines need only minor work to be brought online, also large deposits of other desirable materials, such as iron, copper, aluminium ores, as well as crude oil have been detected."

Thompson turned to Hammond, "How many people do you have ready to set up a crash-mining operation?"

Hammond shook his head, "I don't know for definite, but I think a SG-D3 is available, all other Digger teams are off world."

Thompson looked puzzled, "SG-D3?"

"We have enough teams operational now that dedicated teams need to be clearly identified, SG-M is medical teams, and SG-D are miners, or 'diggers'."

Thompson nodded, and hit his intercom button, "Petty Officer, I'll need a pair of runners here, fully cleared personnel only."

As soon as he was acknowledged, he released the intercom.

"Anything else Peters?"

She glanced at her report, "Oh, you could say that…" she replied slowly.

"Go on Captain" Hammond said, curious.

"We have a pretty good idea why the system was abandoned for a start, No gate present, and the shattered remains of several Goa'uld ships, seem to indicate there was as well as interestingly enough, an derelict Asgard hull. Dafydd seems to think the Asgard vessel engaged the Goa'uld, reason unknown, and managed to destroy them, but not before being destroyed themselves. Without ships or a gate, the Jaffa couldn't leave the planet, and Asgard interest in this area stopped any of the other Goa'ulds from stumbling on this world." She looked up at the eager gleam in Thompson and Hammonds eyes "The Goa'uld have probably forgotten about Alpha now."

"Exactly how much equipment has been left behind?" Hammond asked.

"Quote: Equipment recovered: Not transmitting for Security Reasons, request Reinforcements PDQ."

Thompson and Hammond sat back as they contemplated this, for Dauntless to refuse to tell them, and demand reinforcements meant a significant haul. 

A knock sounded at the door, and the two runners came in, making Thompson smile as he realised whom his secretary had called on. Hammond closed his eyes, trying to clear them of the double image he was seeing, no such luck. Obviously Twins he thought as he gazed at the trim fit looking brunettes in Royal Navy Petty Officers uniforms.

"Petty Officer _Joan_ Williams, you will run for Hammond, Petty Officer _Sarah_ Williams, have 633 Squadron brought to readiness, and have basic supplies for deployment loaded onto 1-6 series hulls, my authority."

"Yes, Sir!" Sarah snapped a salute, and left the room at a dogtrot.

Joan turned to the slightly dazed General Hammond, and said "Just call me Petty Officer Joan sir, only way to know which one of us you are talking to"

"I can see that" Hammond grabbed his notebook and a pen and quickly wrote a message down, sealing it into an envelope he handed it to Joan and asked her to courier it by Ring to SGC.

As soon as Joan left, Hammond turned to Thompson and asked "How in the hell are you supposed to tell those two apart?"

Thompson replied, totally serious "Easy, Joan's gold tooth is front left, Sarah's is Lower right."

Peters struggled to keep a straight face; Thompson chuckled for a moment, and then said "Alright, back to business."

"633 Squadron are the only squadron of fully Hyper capable Lancers we have at the moment, I'll brief them to reinforce Dauntless shortly, and they should be able to arrive at Alpha sometime this afternoon."

"As soon as Joan arrives back with the status report I requested, we can…"


	6. Lancer Interstellars

Go to: t."

"Mossie 7, go"

"Mosquito 8, go"

"Mossie 9, no go, CPU thinks I'm at 3000 feet already."

"Ach, don't you just love prototypes, Mossie 10, go"

"Mossie 11, go"

"Mosquito 12, go"

"Alright, 5 and 10 pair up, 6 and 9 get your arses into gear and join us as soon as your lancers are checked out."

Ross flicked her transmitter over to the tower frequency, "Tower, this is Mosquito flight, 10 birds requesting permission to taxi."

"Roger Mosquito 1, be advised your flight plan shows 12 birds."

"6 and 9 failed pre-flight."

"Roger, you are clear to taxi, and to take-off, the pattern is empty."

The Lancers burst out of their hangers, moving quickly to the runway, where they rushed into the sky, rising quickly into the red glow of the setting sun. 

The Lancers flashed out of Hyperspace into the Alpha Centauri system, and instantly collision alarms blared through the cockpits, Liana Ross looked up from her displays, and slammed on the brakes, the other Lancers quickly following her lead.

She looked carefully forward, blinked, looked again, and then carefully pinched herself. 

"1, this is 8, is that what I think it is?"

"Well, if you think you see a…" 

Mosquito 1, Liana Ross was surprised to hear a voice cut 3 off, tersely shouting, "Comm. discipline, people!"

She was even more surprised to realise it was she who had spoken.

"Not A Word! First one who mentions _this _ over the airwaves, I will _Kill _them myself" She meant every word of it.

The other squadron members responded with a respectful, "Yes Sir", the enormity of this find finally sinking into their shell-shocked minds.

"3, 4 CAP over the North Pole, 5,10 CAP over the South Pole, 7,8 CAP here, Me and 2 will be checking in with Dauntless, 11 and 12, come with us, but rig for Hyper, You'll be couriering a report to GC and SGC, understood?"


	7. Mother Lode

Chapter 7: Mother Lode

Thompson took one look at the report the Lancers had couriered in, and ran from his office, hurrying through the corridors to the ring room, keeping a firm hold on the printout of the report.

"Operator, SGC, Now!" the Admiral barked at the Air Force Flight Sergeant who stood at the rings control panel.

He reappeared in almost instantly within the SGC, surrounded by armed guards; he quickly showed them his ID and was escorted to the Briefing room. Thompson strode straight into the room, interrupting what appeared to be a debriefing of SG-1, or rather of Teal'c, Carter and a battered looking Daniel, O'Neill was no where to be seen. 

"Admiral Thompson" Hammond said, surprised, "What can I do for you?"

"You read the report the Lancers couriered yet, General?"

"No, I was planning to, _after _this debriefing." 

Thompson quirked an eyebrow at that rather pointed comment, and slapped the report printout in front of Hammond, pointing a finger at one line in particular.

Hammond's eyes widened, "Are they _serious_?"

Carter glanced over at the report curiously, she caught sight of the line Thompson had pointed out to Hammond and read it upside down,

"Holy Hannah!"

"…including a Goa'uld spaceyard, significant damage in only one quarter. This facility has four bays, 3 capable of building up to Hatak class in size, bay four was largely wiped out by what appears to have been a comet, but would have been able to construct ships up to Mothership class. Intact and largely complete hulls are present in bays 1 and 3, these craft appear to be outdated, and would need refitting before use, bay 2 is empty."

Planet side, a number of Gliders were captured, with varying damage from the elements, approximately 45 appear to be usable, and another 67 are good only for parts and materials. Several munitions stores were discovered at the following locations…"

"Holy Hannah!"

"I believe the expression is Mother Lode, is it not General Hammond?" 


	8. Movements

Chapter 8: Movements

Thompson slowly eased his aching body into the hot water of his bath, and signed with pleasure. 'Finally' he thought, 'A chance to relax'.

As the water began to soothe his aching and abused body, he thought over the events of the past few days, events since that report had arrived brought whole new meaning to the word hectic. First off, both SGC and the RSS began scrambling, desperately searching for qualified and more importantly, cleared personnel to move to the trinary Alpha Centauri system, everyone from construction workers, experienced ship-wrights, and scientists to clerks, medical personnel and a massive guard detachment, all of which had to be moved by the only craft available, the five 1-6 Paladin class craft, which could only carry 20 people at a time and weren't designed for cargo. Thundersdawn had started crash-priority construction of more, but they wouldn't be available for at least another week. If Dauntless was available it would have greatly speeded up the time taken to shift all the personnel and especially the equipment, but strangely enough when Hammond had suggested Dauntless remain on over watch in the Alpha Centauri system, Thompson hadn't argued, this horde was too valuable to leave unguarded.

Thompson smiled, even the MTB boys had suddenly gained priority status, the politicians had tried to scupper that project from the start, believing it to be a waste of resources. The MTB designers had gone and started building the thing anyway, with the assistance of off-duty SGC and RSS personnel at the old earth side Prometheus construction facility. Both Thompson and Hammond had turned their backs and carefully not asked too many questions when equipment and resources had disappeared in that direction, hoping to present the politicians and bean counters with a fait-accompli. Now, it wasn't necessary, the Motor Torpedo Boat was almost complete, and the politicians had bowed as soon as _the report_, as it had come to be known had come in, they wanted every craft possible to protect the Alpha Centauri system, the MTB design would get a chance to prove itself.

Thompson signed, it would be very helpful if Alpha had a gate, but for whatever reason Ra had never moved a gate to Alpha, probably for the same reasons the RSS and SGC had decided not to move a gate there, Security. A gate while it would make shifting personnel quicker and easier, was another way for Alpha to be discovered, and with as yet unconfirmed rumours coming through from the Tok'ra that Anubis was randomly dialling address's searching for worlds the system lords didn't know about, adding a gate to Alpha was decided to be too much of a security risk.

Right now, Alpha's defences consisted of RSS Dauntless, USS Iwo Jima, who once again had been recalled before they could get too far away, 633 Squadron RSS, and the Black Nights, USMC who had just quietly converted to 302 class fighters, plus about a regiment of mismatched infantry from various units.

At least, Thompson thought, Dauntless now had her Torpedo launchers, and a supply of Naquada enhanced Sparrow missiles aboard, even if fitting the Launcher would be difficult, considering the Dauntless and Iwo Jima were running watch and watch, one craft a full alert for 12 hours then swap over. 

Worse thing was, they still had a lot more personnel and equipment mounting up to shift, but it would continue to mount up for the moment. The Paladins were down for some very hasty maintenance; otherwise the constant overuse they were suffering at the moment could cause an accident. 

The Prometheus Batch 2 class Eisenhower, the first Prometheus to be completed at Thundersdawn had also been recalled, but was now worryingly overdue. Worse, two scheduled check-ins had been missed, and the last message received had been abruptly cut-off.

Thompson closed his eyes, and slipped under the water, 'enough worrying about work' he thought, 'time to relax'


	9. Alarums

Chapter 9: Alarums

Lagrange Point L3

The tug slowly pushed the small self contained satellite into its orbit, the crew of the Shunter were not rushing this. If they did they might have to come back later. None of then liked the long trip around the Sun from Earth to this point, which the astrophysicists insisted was the perfect location for this combined Early Warning / Radio Relay Satellite. They were the only craft on this side of the Sol system and that they didn't like. Still they saw the point, this was a great big blind spot that needed covering, the sun blocked earth based sensors from scanning this part of space making it the perfect route for a surprise Goa'uld attack.

Finally, the guidance computers were satisfied that the satellite was in the correct orbit, and the Shunter crew powered up its ZPE generator.

"Finished here boss, better tell GC."

The bulky Midshipman in charge of the Shunter snorted, "Would love to, but L4 and L5 aren't up yet, must be behind schedule, so we can't get a message to Earth."

"Shit! What if we'd had an accident?"

"We'll take that up with GC when we get back, jobs done, not as if anything is gonna happen now…"

The Satellite's sensors dutifully recorded a microburst transmission coming in from deep space, the computers quickly stripping down the headers, Critique Flash. For SGC, noting the Critique flash header the computer immediately diverted all of its attention to getting this message to the SGC, quickly querying the L4 and L5 satellites, neither responded, the satellite searched for other routes to get the message to earth, a passing ship in the right place to bounce the message perhaps. It found nothing. If the satellite had been human, it would have been feeling a touch of despair at this point, as it was it repeatedly and dutifully tried all the tricks it was programmed with to get the USS Eisenhower's transmission to Earth, failing every time.

(Authors note: For an explanation of Lagrange Points, see:

)


	10. Alert!

Thanks to Joeb for the review, and while I don't know about Jutland, and did deliberately chose to do a fast manoeuvrable ship, which could potentially evade incoming fire.

**Chapter 10: Alert!**

A full 14 hours after the L3 satellite first received the Microburst transmission from the USS _Eisenhower_; it found a relay to Earth, the L5 satellite having finally come online. The satellite didn't know the chaos its message would cause, the kicked-anthill effect of its electrifying words, and it didn't care. What passed for the satellites brain was concentrating on its passive sensors, and the extremely faint signals they were receiving.

SGC

O'Neill shot to his feet with a start as the blaring sirens of a full alert echoed through the base, 

"Colonel O'Neill to the Control Room!"

He rubbed the sleep sand from his eyes, and threw his uniform on, quickly rushing to the control room, with General Hammond in Washington for a round of meetings he was in charge of the base, natural, he thought, something would choose _now_ to happen.

His clattering feet on the stairs alerted the duty airman just as he was about to issue another call for the colonel, he quickly turned to the colonel, tensely he said;

"Sir, we just received a Critique flash from USS _Eisenhower_, Sir"

"Peachy, they mention anything about why they missed so many check-ins?" 

"I think they covered that sir, _Eisenhower_ reported by microburst transmission, they are tailing 5 Hatak's heading in our direction, ETA roughly 32 hours Sir"

As soon as O'Neill heard the word microburst transmission, he got _very _worried, microburst were _not_ normal procedure, basically it meant that whatever information was contained in the message was compressed to the maximum possible so as to be completely transmitted in roughly a microsecond, unfortunately such messages could easily be mistaken for static, and so were avoided, unless you needed information getting out under duress, or whilst remaining stealthy.

By the time the airman had finished, O'Neill was rapidly going through every swear word he knew in his head, this was _not_ going to be pleasant.

"Recall Hammond, and copy this transmission to Admiral Thompson, Critique priority"

O'Niell rushed from the control room, and into General Hammond's office where he grabbed the red phone, the presidential hotline.

"This is Colonel O'Neill at Blue Book, Get me the President!"

"_I don't care_; tell him we have a Code 1 situation here!"

"Yes sir, we just received word from the USS _ Eisenhower_ that 5 Hatak's appear to be heading in our direction, sir"

"NoDuff, Sir"

"Yes, Sir"

(NoDuff: Not Duff, genuine information, generally used to bring exercises to a screeching halt in the event of casualties or a shift to a war footing)

GC, St Athan

Thompson was about to drink his tea when the message came in, as the message sank in the cup slowly dropped lower and lower until it hit the table with a dull clink, slopping some of the tea over his paperwork. Thompson didn't notice, even if he had he wouldn't have cared, he was to busy barking orders into his phone. 

"Recall _Dauntless_, Priority One, sound a general alert, prep all Lancer squadrons for imminent combat, and make sure they get full load outs of the enhanced sparrows, signal _Thundersdawn, Coalmine_ and _Minehead_, we have inbound!"


	11. Recall

**Chapter 11: Recall**

Alpha Centauri, RSS _Dauntless_

"All hear this! All hear this! We are now at condition 2! All armourers to stations! We are moving to engage 5 hatak's heading for the Sol System, Captain to the Bridge!"

Captain Dafydd jumped out of his bed with a curse, and ran to the bridge.

"Captain Has the Bridge! Lloyd, report!"

"Sir, we just received word from GC that Earth is about to come under heavy attack, 5 Hatak's are reported to be inbound, we have been recalled along with half of 633 Squadron"

"Helm, make best speed for earth, Engineering, make sure all weapons batteries and shields are fully operational, someone warn medical too, Lloyd, are they just leaving 6 birds to defend Alpha?"

"Negative sir, _Iwo_ has also been recalled, but a ship identified only as MTB01 has been sent to reinforce the fighters"

Dafydd looked puzzled, "MTB01?"

"No file is listed in the database sir, the only reference appears to be to a cancelled prototype that Hammond in particular felt had promise"

"Captain! Incoming signal from the _Iwo Jima_, Sir!"

"Put it through, Paterson"

"Harris, I assume you've heard?"

"We're just about to jump out, you?"

"Won't be far behind you, Good luck Captain"

"You too, Captain"

The channel closed, and with a flash the _Iwo Jima_ vanished into hyper, _Dauntless _came swiftly about, before following _Iwo_ home, and into the history books.


	12. Battle Plans

Chapter 12: Battle plans

GC, St Athan

Muted alarms echoed in the background, unnoticed by the figures crowding over the plotting table, the table flickered, and the 5 'hostile' markers shifted as new information was downloaded into the computer.

"Well, that's it then, they're bypassing _ Thundersdawn _and heading straight here" Thompson said, quietly.

"We'll have to order _Iwo_ and _Dauntless_ closer to Earth" Hammond indicated a location on the plot, Thompson looked at it and smiled;

"You thinking Hammer and Anvil?"

Hammond looked puzzled for a second then nodded, "Of course, _Eisenhower _is right behind the Hatak's, so when they run into the Anvil of the main fleet, _Eisenhower_ comes in from behind and hammers, could work"

"Yes, but we still need to reinforce the main fleet, _Dauntless, Iwo_, two and a half _Lancer_ squadrons and 4 _ 302_ squadrons are not going to cut it"

"_Prometheus_ and _Persephone_ have been recalled, but won't arrive for another five hours"

"By which time this will all be over"

"Do you have any other armed craft?"

"1-6 _Paladin _class passenger transports, just a pair of weak pulse lasers, as well as a Sparrow mount which was just fitted onto the hull, they setting up as a final line of defence along here" the area Thompson pointed out was well within the moons orbit, and any Hatak that got that far would be able to fire on earth with little difficulty.

"Hows the gate?"

"Sealed," Hammond replied, "and staying that way. Though they haven't as yet tried that, must have decided that the iris is too much of a barrier"

"Well, gives thanks for small mercies, and hope big ones start showing up, Allies?"

"Either not responding, or up to their eyebrows"

"Figures"

Thompson frowned, "Looks like our best bet is to hurt them as much as possible, slowing them down even more, and hope _ Prometheus_ and _Persephone_ arrive before they do to much damage"

"That's not a good plan"

"It's the only one we've got"


	13. Contact

Chapter 13: Contact

First Prime Ba'aca of Ba'al was, for a Jaffa, happy. His god had honoured him with the task of bringing the Tau'ri to their knees so his god and the other system lords could concentrate on defeating Anubis, a task he felt he could handle, after all, only pairs or single _ Ha'tak_'s had attacked Earth before, and they had only marginally been defeated. Five _Ha'tak_'s should be overkill, allowing him to return to his god all the sooner with news of his inevitable success.

"My Lord, sensors have picked up a _ Prometheus_ and an unknown warship in system, as well as a large orbital facility over the fourth planet."

Ba'aca nodded, signalling the Jaffa to leave; this might just be a challenge after all.

He left the room and headed for the control room, this he wanted to see for himself. Ba'aca quickly glanced over the sensor readings and frowned, this orbital facility was constructing more ships of war, this would not do.

"Order the ships to shift course, and target that station, for the glory of Ba'al!"

Ba'aca watched the sensors closely; the Tau'ri would respond to this, he was certain, but how?

He grunted, satisfied as the weak Tau'ri fleet shifted course, moving to defend the station. So be it, he would crush the station quickly, and that would put the Tau'ri right where he wanted them.

"Fire all weapons on that station, in the name of Ba'al we must destroy it quickly."

The _Hatak_'s fired, bright lances of energy flaring across space, only to be blocked by the shimmering glare of a shield. 

Ba'aca looked closer at the sensors, and cursed inwardly. Asguard shields, not only that but Asguard shields that appeared to have been combined with some other, unknown form of technology, to give a most capable hybrid.

"Launch the gliders and the _Al-kesh_, have them engage the Tau-ri fleet, continue firing on that station."

Ba'aca cursed as the ship lurched, what were those weapons firing? 

"My lord, the gliders are taking heavy losses, the Tau'ri are using a new type of fighter and they are outmanoeuvring the gliders." 

"Then they die for their god."

"My lord."


	14. Engagement

Chapter 14: Engagement

Thundersdawn

The constant rocking of the station was getting on Captain Peters nerves, 'it was a several thousand tonne space station, so why do I need to regain my sea-legs?' she thought, irrelevantly.

"Captain, we can't take much more of this!"

"Where is the fleet?" Peters screamed to be heard over the din of weapons fire, shield impacts, tortured metal and incessant reports.

"_Dauntless_, the _302_'s and _ Lancers _have engaged the gliders and _Al-kesh, Iwo Jima_ has broken through and is now engaging the _Ha'tak_'s"

"New Contact! _Prometheus _class, just dropped stealth mode and is moving to engage, IFF says USS _Eisenhower_, Captain."

"Nice timing, really, now tell them to get their arses in gear…" Peters paused as she grabbed hold of the nearest console to anchor herself as the station gave a particularly massive lurch "…before our shields give way!"

"Captain! The gliders have been destroyed; the remaining _Lancers_ are regrouping and moving to assist the _302_'s"

_Dauntless_ rumbled and shook as the _ Al-kesh_ fired salvo after salvo into her hull, _Dauntless _and the _ 302_'s had destroyed many of the _Al-kesh_ but they were relentless, fanatical in their attempts to destroy the _Dauntless_. Something had to give, and with a mighty flash of energy it did, _Dauntless_' shield generator blew. Victorious, the _Al-kesh_ moved to deal with the 302's as a last salvo impacted on _Dauntless'_ hull.

"Captain!"

Peters followed the pointed finger to the tactical display on the main viewer, as the icon representing _Dauntless _ flickered and turned black, a 15 appearing next to the icon. IFF frequency 15, Ship crippled, unable to abandon.

A wave of horror passed through Peters, but she suppressed it, and turned to the task at hand, her eyes filling with tears.

"Signal the _Lancers_, forget the _Al-kesh_, the _302_'s can handle it, we need them here!"

"All right people! You heard Peters, lets get tone on the nearest target, _Ha'tak _4." Wing Commander Ross commanded over the airwaves at her mixed bag of surviving _Lancers_ from _633, 649_, and _598_ squadrons. 

"Mossie 1, good tone."

The _Lancers_ launched their Naquada enhanced sparrows across the gulf of space at the _Ha'tak_. Of the 15 missiles launched, one misfired and went wild, disappearing into space, 2 were destroyed by weapons fire, still 12 Sparrows got through, impacting near simultaneously on the _Ha'tak_'s already weakened shields, they gave. With a flash of escaping energy, the _Ha'tak_ vanished, debris spinning out across space.

"That's it for the Sparrows; let's sort those _Al-kesh_ out."

Peters smiled, relieved as the _Hatak_ vanished from the tactical display, soon followed by another as _Thundersdawn, Iwo Jima_ and _Eisenhower_ caught another _Hatak_ in a lethal cross-fire.

Her smile quickly disappeared as _Iwo Jima_ disengaged, air bursting from her shattered bridge, bodies spilling into space.

She glanced at the status displays and cursed, every shield was lit a blood red colour, most were flashing. Blood red meant heavily damaged, flashing, failure imminent. This did not look good, and all they had left was _Eisenhower, Thundersdawn_, she glanced at the fighter controller's panel, 8 _Lancers_ without Sparrows, and 15 _302_'s. No, this did not look good at _all_.

She cried out as Thundersdawn shook once more, the last thing she noticed before hitting her head on a control panel was the lights flickering off on every panel in the command centre.


	15. Sacrifice Of Angels

Chapter 15: Sacrifice Of Angels

The Ha'taks moved away from Thundersdawn, without power the station was unable to fight and so was not a threat. Eisenhower and the remaining fighters were however. Ba'aca momentarily considered recalling the Al-kesh, to destroy Thundersdawn while the Ha'tak's cleaned up the remaining resistance, but stopped when he noticed there were no Al-kesh left. He frowned, unfortunate. This mission had already cost him enough that he wondered about Ba'als displeasure, he dismissed the thought, if he succeeded, Ba'al would forgive much.

Dafydd looked over the shattered remains of the bridge and a wave of despair passed through him, this was a new ship for god's sake! They hadn't even had a chance to prove her worth, and now they probably never would.

Coughing and cursing in the smoke filled air; Lieutenant Tomas made her way over to her Captain.

"Sir, as far as I can tell from what remains of the sensors, We're losing sir, _Iwo Jima_ has disengaged, _Thundersdawn_ is off-line, most of the fighters are gone, and there are still three _Hatak_'s around"

Dafydd cursed, then said quietly, "Whats our status?"

"Dead loss, sir, She's broke her back, the Gauss rifles, hyper drive and the shuttlebay are gone, and air is leaking from every compartment we can contact."

Dafydd stiffened, "In-system drive?"

"Only thing that's good captain, we get about 75%, would have more but not enough power"

"Tomas, target the most undamaged _Ha'tak_"

"What with, Captain we have no weapons left"

"Take Helm, Tomas."

"Helm sir?" Her eyes widened, and she gulped, tears springing to her eyes, she understood, "Helm aye, Captain"

"My Lord, the unidentified Tau'ri vessel has just brought its in-system drive back online, they mean to ram!"

"Move us out of here, quickly!"

"My Lord, they move to fast."

Ba'aca turned and looked with widened eyes as the crippled hull of the _Dauntless_ hit his command ships shields. The shields gave, and _Dauntless_ ran unmanned into the _Ha'tak_'s hull, her crew killed by the force of the impact on the shields. The structural integrity of both ships failed utterly, and the debris rained across space, large chunks hitting the shields of the remaining _Ha'tak_'s, the remaining Tau'ri fighters manoeuvring frantically to avoid being hit.

_Eisenhower_ moved decisively, unloading a full broadside into a _Ha'tak_'s hull as they were still reeling from the death of their leader, and the impacts on their shields, volley after volley was fired, _Eisenhower_ receiving only sporadic fire in return. Just as the _ Ha'tak_'s got their act together, and began to attack, Eisenhower fired a volley that passed through the _Ha'tak_'s shields, the _Naquadah_ tips of the gauss rifle rounds blowing chunks of the hull, fire quickly bursting through the hull as the _Ha'tak_ died, spinning away uncontrolled.

_Iwo Jima_, having repaired as much of their damage as they could, reengaged, their movements sluggish, _Eisenhower _and _Iwo Jima_ moving quickly to tag-team the surviving _Ha'tak_. 

The _Ha'tak_ broke off, attempting to disengage, before quickly coming to a complete stop, it shields switched off, its weapons powering down and the drives off-line.

It was over.


	16. Damage and Mourning

Chapter 16: Damage & Mourning

Admiral Thompson sat down quietly at his desk, his heart heavy with sorrow. All day long all he had heard was casualty reports, each one grimmer than the one before, he was tired of it, but he knew it wasn't over, not by a long shot. 

He signed, rubbing his face with his hands as he turned to face the newly promoted Lieutenant General Hammond, a promotion he knew Hammond did not feel comfortable with, he knew he wouldn't either, being promoted over the bodies of some many loyal officers and crew.

"Its actually not the number of dead that will cause us problems, not meaning to sound callous Hammond, but rather the people who died. They were all our rising stars, our best brains, meant to gain experience on _Dauntless_ and in the first squadrons before moving to high rank in ships and squadrons of their own. With the loss of _Dauntless_, we lost everyone we had who was experienced in spaceship operations, except the small handful on MTB01 and most of our experienced Lancer pilots too. It will take quite some time to rebuild; the ships will be ready before the crews are, to be honest."

"What do you intend to do?"

"Nothing else we can do, the schedule is going to have to be moved up, Canada already has a pretty good idea about the StarGate, so they will be informed first, and hopefully brought into the RSS, and then Australia."

"What about other commonwealth members?"

"Not yet, there are 53 commonwealth members, but not all are what I would call stable, or trustworthy, not with something of this magnitude, and not all will be able to provide a significant amount of help either."

"I'll warn the president." 

A knock came on the door just as Hammond was about to leave, and Petty Officer Williams, which one Thompson couldn't tell, walked into the Admirals office.

"Signal from Alpha Centauri, sir, an _Al-kesh_ patrol was engaged by the _Lancers _and MTB01 several hours ago, the _ Lancers_ are gone and MTB01 is crippled. They are requesting backup."

Thompson turned to Hammond, "It'll have to be a _Prometheus_, we have nothing to send"

"Agreed, I'll arrange it as soon as I get back to the SGC."

The mournful sound of buglers playing Last Post filled the air in this sheltered corner of St Athan as a new memorial was unveiled, proudly bearing the legend in solid bronze, "To the Fallen, who died to keep this World free." 

It seemed almost obscene to Thompson that despite the solemn nature of this occasion, birds were singing, the sun was shining and the laughter of children could be heard in the distance. He listened quietly as Captain Peters, who was the only person sitting for this unveiling, sang softly along to the last post through the bandages wrapped around her forehead;

"Come home! Come home! The last post is sounding  
for you to hear. All good soldiers know very well there  
is nothing to fear while they do what is right, and forget  
all the worries they have met in their duties through the  
year. A soldier cannot always be great, but he can be a  
gentleman and he can be a right good pal to his comrades in  
his squad. So all you soldiers listen to this – Deal fair by all  
and you'll never be amiss.

Be Brave! Be Just! Be Honest and True Men!"

Last post finished and the riflemen came forward, shattering the air with their ceremonial volleys.

Thompson stepped forward, he voice calm, proud and commanding;

"RSS _Dauntless_, Lost with all Hands,

_598_ Squadron, Lost with all Hands,

_633_ Squadron, 8 Casualties and 1 who will never walk again,

_649 _Squadron, 6 Casualties, 

USS _Iwo Jima_, 49 Casualties,

USS _Eisenhower_, 32 Casualties,

1st SFW, 9 Casualties,

2nd SFW, 7 Casualties,

3rd SFW, 7 Casualties,

RSS _Thundersdawn_, 112 Casualties

MTB01, 3 Casualties"

He looked down for a moment, and then looked up at the assembled dignitaries, personnel and families.

"Most of us know why, and how they died, for those of us here who do not, there will come a time when their sacrifice is known by the entire world. Now is not that time, but that time will come. For now, we can only find comfort in the fact that they died for us all, they died to keep this world safe, and if you asked them if they would do it again, they would to a man step forward and say yes. For they believed in what they were doing, so mourn them, for a while, and remember them forever, but always remember what they died for. They died to keep us all free, so honour their memory by living free, Thank you."

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Just a reminder: I do not own, nor do I claim ownership of characters or concepts from StarGate SG-1, Chocky's Challenge, Down Periscope.

Part 4: Thundergate is En-route

PLEASE use the review button and tell me what you think.


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